America's Environmental Report Card: Are We Making the Grade?

Professor of geology Blatt has compiled an accessible primer of environmental topics of concern to most Americans. Covering everything from water pollution to energy, global warming, and the ozone layer, Blatt offers hard data and possible solutions for each subject. His honesty is refreshing. A chapter on energy extols solar power while noting its expense and the technology's current limitations (it would take an array of solar panels the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined to supply America's current electrical demand). Wind power is also honestly considered; one of the least expensive nonpolluting ways to generate electricity, wind power could provide 20 percent of our nation's needs but, as the author notes, wind is intermittent and difficult to harness, and better fuel-cell technology needs to be developed. Odd facts enliven the book (who knew that worms living within a few miles of contaminated Chernobyl have switched from asexual to sexual reproduction?) and compensate for Blatt's sometimes simplistic prose. A good overview for the novice environmentalist. Rebecca Maksel








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